navigation-topology-decision-contract

Use a navigation topology decision contract to evaluate movement semantics, determinism requirements, and cost policies. It guides selecting between square grids, hex grids, generic graphs, or navmeshes based on your specific movement rules and level of detail.

Discrete-rule navigation restricts movement to structured topology representations like grids or graphs, while free-form continuous navigation allows fluid movement across navmeshes. This decision contract evaluates your game scenarios to determine which approach fits your needs.

Use a navmesh instead of a square grid when your game requires free-form continuous navigation rather than discrete-rule based movement. The decision contract evaluates your movement semantics and determinism needs to recommend the correct architecture.

Path cost logic does not need to be coupled to the navigation topology. This decision contract ensures policy decoupling, keeping path cost and traversal logic separate from the underlying topology representation for better architectural flexibility.

You can use this navigation topology contract for complex character movement systems. It evaluates determinism requirements and cost policies to determine whether a square grid, hex grid, generic graph, or navmesh best fits your project's desired level of detail.